Fancy Fitness Gadgets

Learn how new fitness gadgets can help improve your health and performance

No matter where you are, there are now several types of fancy fitness gadgets that can make weight management, healthy eating, and attainment of your fitness goals a breeze. These gadget gizmos do the complicated calculations for you in a matter of seconds and they range from fitness apps, to watches and other seemingly small objects you can probably swallow whole (just kidding).

A perfect example would be some of the popular new watches available nowadays to keep track of almost everything (except probably farting). Here are some of their well-known benefits:

Literally measure your success. Small things add up to big things. If you want to know if you’re getting better at something, you need to know how well you’re doing it in the first place. These watches and other fitness gadgets monitor a whole book of useful data about your blood pressure, heart rate, food intake, weight, body fat and even the quality of your sleep. If you know how well you’re doing, you can continue to set goals and targets to improve.
They make you more productive. Most of us don’t really have that much time for exercising. Using these gadgets forces to you be more productive with your time. They can get you parking further from work or getting off the bus one stop earlier to top up your total steps for the day.
They can motivate you. These gadgets can serve as motivational tools to get you going. Seeing your progress gives you more push to strive and aim higher.
Bring out the competitive spirit in you. When you track your progress with these fitness gadgets, you get the opportunity to share them with other fitness enthusiasts over online leader boards. You will find ways to overcome your weaknesses in order to lead in a particular activity, event or sport. To some people, the extra competitiveness gives them additional incentive to exercise.
They give you a sense of accomplishment. Do you remember running on a treadmill for 30 minutes and stopping to wonder what is it that you’ve accomplished? Well, that fitness watch may just congratulate you and give you that extra edge or nudge to show you how much you’ve accomplished for that 30 minutes of blank staring. This includes the number of calories burned, your heart rate, steps taken, etc.

What other fun stuff do fitness watches and other gadgets measure?

Some of the best fitness trackers out there do some amazing stuff in addition to measuring the usual garden variety of parameters. As well as measuring and managing your exercise activities, they also…

Record your sleep – they can tell you whether you were in deep sleep or light sleep based on your motion during the night. Some can even tell how long you were in REM sleep while others can track your caffeine intake in relation to your sleep.
Can be sport-specific. Are you a swimmer? Then you will be needing a waterproof fitness tracker. If you’re a runner, you’ll want a tracker that’s more detailed in recording and reporting on your pace, distance, etc.
Can be fashion-conscious. You don’t want to be caught lugging around a fitness tracker the size of an old Sony Walkman do you? Or something that looks like it's out of the 70’s.
GPS (Global Positioning System). Your fitness gadget can help you map out your run or cycle route and get you home again when you take a wrong turn and get lost.
Alerts. Inform you when you have text and call notifications.
Bluetooth. Many of them can connect to your computer so you can record and save everything there.
Other health data. Some of these very fancy gadgets can even measure your blood oxygen levels, how much you sweat, and your skin temperature among other things.

Before you buy a fitness watch or other gadget, try them out first. Pay attention to how comfortable the strap is or if you would prefer a clip-on gadget that won’t get in the way. Make sure it has all the right functions you would like for your sport or activity. It’s always best to see and feel how they fit in and work in real life. Read online reviews to figure out which are best suited for your goals. They can monitor almost any aspect of your life (the sophisticated ones) and keep you on track and focused.